Chief Engineer

Location: Devonport, Plymouth, GB, PL1 4SG; Bristol, GB, BS16 1EJ. Hybrid working (2 days onsite per week) at Plymouth or Bristol. Salary from £75,100 dependent on experience + benefits. Full time, 37 hours per week. Role ID: SF72524.

You will provide strategic and technical leadership across multidisciplinary engineering teams working on defence, land, and engineering innovation programmes to ensure vehicle capability programmes are safe, reliable, and built to the highest technical standards.

• Lead and coordinate multidisciplinary engineering teams delivering complex land vehicle programmes.
• Oversee system architecture development, design solutions, integration strategies, and verification and validation activities.
• Act as the primary technical interface with customers, suppliers, and internal stakeholders.
• Represent engineering at technical reviews, governance boards, and programme milestones.
• Ensure technical integrity, safety, and performance across all protected mobility vehicle systems.

• Proven experience leading complex, multidisciplinary engineering programmes at a senior level.
• Strong understanding of land vehicle systems engineering, integration, and lifecycle management.
• Deep knowledge of defence standards, safety assurance, and regulatory compliance.
• Demonstrable leadership and stakeholder management capability.
• Ability to influence technical strategy in a high integrity engineering environment.

• HNC/HND or degree in an engineering discipline.
• Chartered Engineer status or working towards it (desirable).
• Additional systems engineering, safety engineering, or defence-accredited qualifications (desirable).

Successful candidate must be able to achieve and maintain Security Check (SC) clearance. Many positions are subject to national security clearance and Trade Control restrictions, which may affect eligibility based on place of birth, nationality, current or former citizenship, and residency.

• Matched contribution pension scheme with life assurance.
• Access to a Digital GP, annual health check, and nutritional consultations through Aviva DigiCare+.
• Employee shopping savings portal.
• Payment of professional fees.
• Reservists receive 10 days of special paid leave.
• Holiday trading allows employees to buy additional leave or sell up to one working week of annual leave from their entitlement (available February-March annually).
• 'Be Kind Day' enables employees to take one paid day or equivalent hours a year for volunteering with a chosen organisation.